Human Relations with the Animal Kingdom in Mesopotamian Literary Genres

Idan Breier

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-12405-1_4

Human Relations with the Animal Kingdom in Mesopotamian Literary Genres

Idan Breier

Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

Abstract

This chapter explores ethical aspects of human-animal relations in third- and second-millennium Mesopotamian literary sources.Discussing creation and the purpose for which human beings were fashioned in Sumerian and Babylonian creation stories, it presents early views with respect to the formation of animals and their interaction with gods and human beings.It then surveys the various versions of the Mesopotamian Flood story in light of the ethical factors that prompted it and the gods’ decision to allow some human beings and animals to survive.It also examines other sources attesting to god-animal relations, including hybrid god-human or human-animal creatures and their interrelations with human beings and other animals.Finally, it discusses cases in which the protagonists of the early epics demonstrate sympathy towards animals, treating them ethically.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series
Publisher	Springer Nature
Pages	67-103
Number of pages	37
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12405-1_4
State	Published - 2022

Publication series

Name	Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series
ISSN (Print)	2634-6672
ISSN (Electronic)	2634-6680

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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10.1007/978-3-031-12405-1_4

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Human Relations with the Animal Kingdom in Mesopotamian Literary Genres

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